Mr Smyth declined to comment when contacted byThe Age,but the agency put out a statement saying he had “indicated he now wishes to return to Queensland to pursue new opportunities”.
His departure follows months of difficulty at the authority,which runs Victoria’s call-taking dispatch system but has struggled to cope with the surge in demand from patients during the state’s Delta outbreak.
Tensions between the agency and the ambulance union deepened this month after it was revealed two people suffering cardiac arrest died after triple-zero calls went unanswered for five minutes in each case,and that emergency calls in other life-threatening circumstances had been left unanswered for up to 33 minutes – exceeding the required target time of five seconds.
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This came after authorities investigated the case of a three-year-old girl who died from a cardiac arrest near Bendigo after the family’s triple-zero call was placed on hold for a minute and 41 seconds.
Ambulance union boss Danny Hill called for Mr Smyth’s sacking at the time,accusing the agency of being “asleep at the wheel” and of not doing enough to prepare for the surge.
But Mr Smyth rejected this,saying he had been lobbying the government for new staff and that ambulance calls only started rising exponentially in mid-August. By the end of last month,they climbed to levels that had not been seen in Melbourne since the 2016 thunderstorm asthma event.